Monday, April 6, 2009

This video recipe for Trader Joe's meatloaf was produced for a few reasons. First, I like meatloaf, and Trader Joe's (a chain of great little grocery stores) has some wonderful ingredients that make this recipe easy and delicious.

Secondly, I would love to be hired as a sort of video spokesperson for them - showing off their products for the benefit of my foodwish faithful, as well as the benefit of my feeble checking account balance.

Since I really use and love their products, it seems to be a perfect fit. The only problem is I don't think they know about me yet. I have people working on this, but I thought their job would be made easier if I had a few examples they could refer to.

Regarding the actual cooking of this meatloaf; I've always told people to cook their meatloaf to an internal temp of 155 degrees F. I've begged them to get a quality meat thermometer and use it religiously. I've told them the cooking times given in meatloaf recipes are only an approximation that will vary greatly.

So, it's with some shame that I now confess I haven't followed my own advice. I feel like the cardiologist who gets caught buying fried pork rinds at the mini-mart… "They're… err… for my friend."

Since I usually use the same amount of meat (2 pounds) and fixings, I just cook my loaf for one-hour and ten minutes at 325 degrees F, and it comes out beautifully moist.

But, for whatever reason, when I removed this lovely loaf o' meat from the oven, I decided to pop in a thermometer to check. As you can see from the completely un-edited photo here, the final internal temp was…155 degrees exactly. Enjoy!

49 comments:

Asian Malaysian
said...

I wish we had a Traders Joe in Malaysia. I only attempt cooking every other weekend so being able to purchase mirepoix by the cup and good stock (with NO added salt-God, why does anyone add salt to their- ok, rant for another day)by the box would make the process so much easier. I hope they take you up as a spokesman, Chef John. You may want to lose the jokes about the products though. I love em but Joe might not.

Good to see you refrained from using the "Meatloaf" band gag again ;)I, for one, enjoyed your jokes.Oh yes, and whenever I buy celery, it's always for a specific recipe and I always end up throwing a lot out, so buying mirepoix in a container like that is less wasteful for people like me.

OK, this looks really good. I'm inland in WA state so no Trader Joe's, but I think I can handle it. I'll be making this very soon. By the way, the Mariners WON tonight (6-1)!!I see the Giants open tomorrow and I wish them luck. I'm actually kind of a Giants fan, too.

Great video, too bad there's no Trader Joe's in New Zealand because I was totally sold! ;)

Anyway, been meaning to mention this to you but thought you might want to know that 'Worcestershire' (as in the sauce) is usually pronounced more like 'wuster' or 'wooster' i.e. as in 'Jeeves & Wooster', though I'm not sure how that'll turn out in the American accent... Hope that helps next time you do a recipe with that ingredient! =)

Woo! I'm making this right now. So far so good. I have a really bad habit of washing utensils right after I use them so I had a lot of going back and forth with that. Sometimes I'm a little too efficient for my own good.

Anyway, I'll post on my blog how it turns out :) Thanks for the recipe as always Chef John!

Chef John, you should do your bit for the environment, embrace healthy, frugal cooking like the good old days...

Instead of buying a big heart of celery and throwing most away or buying pre-packed mirepoire, you should buy the whole celery and then use it to make a delicious stock or salad, or allow it you force you to be more creative and come up with some great recipes that involve celery... or just make a massive pot of gumbo!

We love meatloaf, and I usually follow some variation off the Quaker Oats box recipe, sometimes adding gound pork+ground beef to really get crazy with it, but I have to say, following your recipe was far - make that oceans, apart from our normal fare! While I only had TJ's wonderful Organic Ground Beef, all the other ingredients were improvised. To my chopped veggies I included a red bell pepper; used a barbecue sauce because I didn't have any double roasted saul-ZAH, and I completely forgot to add the thyme, but, just the same, it was great!

Sorry old man Quaker, Chef John has shown me how to make a better meatloaf, and I won't be coming back, except for your oatmeal cookies, of course.

Wow made this meatloaf yesterday, and it was amazing! The veggies really keep it nice and moist, and the gravy is to die for. I did pull it out of the oven after only 1 hour since the temp was already at 155.

I was looking for a late night snack (i had a late lunch) and decided to make this recipe. Sorry to sound like a hyperactive teenage girl but OMG it was AWESOME! I made everything, unfortunately we dont have a trader joes here in Melbourne, Australia, but I just got the ingredients from the local grocery store. It still turned out FAB. Thanks Chef John!!

Hi I decided I am making this meatloaf for my mother, sisters and bfs tomorrow night and I also live in Melbourne Australia.I was wondering what could I substitute for the salsa and what kinda flavours did the salsa have bbq? or just plain tomato?

Oh wait. I just realized bread = flour = wheat; pesticides = bugs = plants - like wheat. In my horribly sleep deprived (and slightly delirious) state of mind, I sat thinking "why would anyone use pesticides to grow bread?" Though in my defense, I have been awake for roughly 72 hrs and was on the site watching your videos as sort of a guilty-piney, pleasurably way of winding down before finally getting a chance to go to bed.

Anyways, although I love Trader Joes, Jewel Osco's sale prices are a little more friendlier to your average college student such as myself. Nevertheless, Im excited to try this one out when I get the chance! :D

Hi Chef John! So far I have tried your Italian Meatballs and Chicken Primavera in the oven - both came out fantastic -thank you for the recipes. Tonight I am trying this meatloaf recipe - I will keep you updated.

Chef, you'd make a great spokesman for Wegmans markets. I understand from your chicken french video that you are from the Rochester area. Also, I understand from visiting Trader Joe's website that they are opening a store in Rochester soon. There are apparently no plans to open one here in Buffalo yet. Pity.

Hello Chef John, I'm making this meatloaf tonight but I'm also doing it in your creamy mushroom sauce. Here is the question, is it important to use unsalted butter when one of the first things you add is salt? Just curious

You're confusing weight and volume. A cup is 8-oz of volume, but a cup of diced veg (because of the air between the pieces) is around 5-oz of weight.In other words, a cup of something doesn't always weigh 8 oz! (flour is 4.5 oz, sugar is 10 oz, etc.

Thanks you for the lesson and thank you for ALL your wonderfull recipes! I do all the cooking for my family and I thought I was an ok cook before, but now thanks to you I can make a roux, make gravy from scratch, and most of all cook without non stick pans like a real pro!

Like clockwork... 70 minutes @ 325 deg., gave a temp of 155. The only thing I did wrong was failing to pat the loaf firmly before baking. And today, a meat loaf crumble sandwich for lunch with the few leftovers! Thanx!!!

I will admit to watching Food Network for particular shows but, nowadays too many of the presentations are just drive-by visits to restaurants, vulgar and contrived cooking contests or, lame reality tv shows which teach me nothing about the essence of cooking. Please forget about that Trader Joe's endorsement and get your butt on the big screen. The ignorant masses need your common-sense, concise, and laid back approach to cooking. Thanks for all your recipes. You are my first reference source when I make up my grocery list.

I fudged a little using only ingredients on hand such as Half & Half instead of milk and 1 cup stale bread instead of crumbs. All I can say is this was the best best best best meatloaf and possibly best beef meal ever in my 51 years! Thanks once again Chef John!